On the fence about NWN2

[Black Swan Gauntlet]

I've heard a lot of negatives about NWN2 - mostly about camera angles and excessive lag. I've also heard the game is somewhat buggy and that the final chapter is excessively difficult.

On the other hand, the extensive options for character creation and the good things I've heard about how henchmen interact with you sound great (and of course, more D&D action is hard to pass up.) In addition, some user reviews I've read don't mention the problems listed above or claim they've been fixed (though others go on about these problems at length and are almost as recent.)

I don't know. Is NWN2 a worthy buy for US $30? Also, should I go ahead and also buy the expansion with the main game?

[toot033]

It is enjoyable and I am having alot of fun with it especially with the mask of the betrayer expansion. I really have not had that many lags that everyone seems to be talking about. Once you get the hang of crafting this game really takes off.

[Micah Foehammer]

Originally Posted by Black Swan Gauntlet I've heard a lot of negatives about NWN2 - mostly about camera angles and excessive lag. I've also heard the game is somewhat buggy and that the final chapter is excessively difficult. On the other hand, the extensive options for character creation and the good things I've heard about how henchmen interact with you sound great (and of course, more D&D action is hard to pass up.) In addition, some user reviews I've read don't mention the problems listed above or claim they've been fixed (though others go on about these problems at length and are almost as recent.) I don't know. Is NWN2 a worthy buy for US $30? Also, should I go ahead and also buy the expansion with the main game?

I've never had issues with lag or graphics, and I'm running a NVidia GeForce 7800 GT with a 3.2 Ghz Intel CPU and 2 gigs of ram. If your video is a lot older than that, you might want to reconsider getting the game. There ARE some issues with dual core processors and SLI cards - and suprisingly some of the newest systems have more issues with the game than older ones in some cases.

I've had ONE bug hit me, and that was resolved with a reload from a saved game. Most of the folks I talk to report similiar stories. There was some issues with some of the intermediate patches but the latest version appears fairly stable. There is another patch due out in a couple or 3 weeks to fix some remaining problems. And there will likely be another patch after that to fix others. NONE of those are game breaking issues. A large percentage of the bugs I see reported now are due to people running undersupported 3rd party haks, mods and plugins. So be careful in that regard.

The camera was updated with MotB but some people still aren't happy. A lot of it seems to be coming from folks who prefer the FPS type camera view as opposed to an overhead view. Matter of preference.

The ending battle is not excessively difficult, but the final dungeon does NOT allow you to rest (without risking spawning new monsters) until you reach the final chamber. Without going into TOO much detail, the final battle is a three stage affair. The middle part is more tedious than difficult, but none of the final parts are that tough.

The actual climax after the final Boss is defeated is one of the lamest things I have ever seen. The final slideshow and voice over is simply not well done at all. But the bad boss is dead anway so it's actually not THAT big of a deal.